Aaron Luk's Collective Experience

13. SIDE EFFECTS

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 09:05:29 GMT

dir. Steven Soderbergh, USA 2013.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2053463

"We didn't go looking for you. We just looked at the world."

I hope that Soderbergh won't retire from movies as stated, but his ostensibly final theatrical release very effectively expresses the sum total of his career-long creative obsessions. A resonant neo-noir that searingly examines the essential and dysfunctional con game that we call the human condition, from a prime example of auteur theory at its most prolific and collaborative; this is the work of an artist who continually allowed himself and his compatriots to be thrown to the critical and commercial wolves at an impressive rate, by valuing the process over the result, inspiring droves of cinephiles grasping to understand their own trials in storytelling.

Once again serving as his own cinematographer and editor, Soderbergh realizes a vision of purgatory as staid and measured as anything else he's made, with a relatively uncharacteristic dearth of humor, committing fully to the static and understated aesthetic that still comes primarily from his pragmatism, but finds sublime expression in a wickedly involving script from CONTAGION's Scott Z. Burns. As with their previous project, writer and director structure the proceedings around professional proceduralism, with death and dystopia continually haunting the background. Rather than presenting the narrative as an urgent quest for survival (though its elements remain a driving factor, just with slightly less dire stakes for the bulk of the players), Burns and Soderbergh step back to dissect the pursuit of happiness in a society whose history has been fraught with institutional and personal lies of all scales, that stand in for that goal.

It's difficult to imagine a more perfect actress in the central role other than Rooney Mara, subverting the hardened assertiveness she demonstrated so powerfully in David Fincher's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, where she managed to make even the steely alpha Daniel Craig appear soft and submissive. Here her pale skin and wide eyes put forth a visage that is a blank slate that demands that both the audience and characters attempt to fill in with any number of dramatic motivations and emotions. Her choices throughout are worthy of closer study, a masterwork of quiet sex appeal beneath a pained soul ever reserved about the future. By contrast, Jude Law's perfectly pressed suits and rugged yet negligibly presentable stubble convey a figure who has never known less than a perfect world, not really, yet can easily find himself in the most modern and timeless of troubles, as a man with much to lose.

Soderbergh regulars Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones round out the lead cast, proving again just why so many actors return to work with this director who values their ability and desire to build off of their prior archetypes into something new and unexplored in their career. Perhaps this deliberately journeyman auteur has earned a rest after so many years of service, but I have to think that he won't be able to resist tinkering further with the medium for long, and has more to show us.

12. SOUND CITY

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:08:09 GMT

dir. David Grohl, USA 2013.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2306745/

SOUND CITY boasts an embarrassment of riches of rock gods at work, coming together in honor of the structures, equipment, and raw/restrictive immediacy that make music happen. Knowing little about the project going in, I was gleefully unspoiled for the history it recollects, and then proceeds to augment with its own new chapter.

As glossy and polished as its subject matter is not, the cinematography and editing unfurl the narrative and relationships beautifully, hitting each breathtaking dramatic reveal with a drummer's precision-- and there's something sweet in superstar Dave Grohl making sure that the below-the-line folks working at the famed studio come off looking like a million bucks, while allowing his fellow above-the-line performers like Rick Springfield to be wrenchingly introspective about the decisions they'd made in its darkest days. ProTools gets ripped pretty thoroughly by all who are interviewed about its contributions to the industry here, yet Grohl takes care to trumpet Trent Reznor as a musician who uses technology to further his art, and the documentary itself looks shot and edited digitally, implicitly embracing the idea that these tools need not corrupt the creative process, when deployed with the hard-learned lessons of analog experience, or at least a healthy respect for the creative power of its fidelity and limitations, at hand. Fittingly, the disc used by the venue tonight began skipping incessantly an hour in, and was switched out, to complete our audience immersion in the movie's meta-chorus.

As NoisePop begins to take over the city's music scene this week and next, and just after Kurt Cobain's birthday, experiencing this heartfelt ode to creative chemistry is uplifting at just the right time, shared with a like-minded crowd in the confined space of the Little Roxie. Take the stage, immortals! Your fans are listening.

5. REBECCA

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:17:12 GMT

dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1940.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976

"I told you I've done a very selfish thing in marrying you-- I love you, and I will always love you.

But I knew Rebecca would win, in the end."

First time seeing my favorite Hitchcock in 35mm, by way of a battered print that scraped by to convey the bulk of the film's visual majesty. Impressive and appreciative crowd tonight (this series is likely the most popular one that this venue has had in a while); they were able to avoid mocking the clumsy rear projection and melodramatic musical swells, though the lesbian overtones might have caught them off-guard.

I absolutely adore and revere Joan Fontaine in this movie-- the range exhibited in her various levels of social awkwardness and bolstered resolution are immersive and relatable, as she wrangles the gender dynamics in a way that represents the times, and yet also fits in with a more progressive model, through her discovery and strength of personality, all with her character never needing to be named in the piece! Laurence Olivier, while generally not a big proponent of nuance in his acting, seems to make an effort to exercise restraint here as a man ravaged and haunted by the choices he made during his time with the titular spirit. Perhaps his director gave him no other choice; in having George Barnes shoot the grounds of Manderley with as much foreboding and scale as he did (thereby forming a grand influence on Orson Welles and Gregg Toland for the look of CITIZEN KANE), Hitchcock surrounded his star with scenery that would not hesitate to chew back.

Supporting players Judith Anderson, George Sanders, and Reginald Denny take what could have been two-dimensional foils to our overwhelmed protagonists, and instead deliver performances that depict their conflicting values believably and dramatically, with no small amount of magnetic style.

Owning one's past is a massive prerequisite for moving forward, especially in romance. Here, with the luck provided by Daphne du Maurier's well-designed plot, making the leap to do something "selfish" in the hopes of fostering the right life partnership is a risk well worth taking. If you can't share your demons with your spouse, then why expose her to the wear and tear that they've had on you at all?

85. THE SESSIONS

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:58:03 GMT

dir. Ben Lewin, USA 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1866249/

Conventional wisdom has long been accustomed to the cinematic obsession with physical and/or mental disabilities as a slam dunk with audiences and critics, but such character-driven narratives often touch upon universal experiences in a way that is stronger than that of most other offerings, thanks to a beautiful alchemy in the performances that shines a light on the most humanistic of worldviews. In this case, John Hawkes' take on the immensely remarkable and accomplished poet and journalist Mark O'Brien, who contracted polio at a young age, requiring the near-constant use of an iron lung and a host of caretakers for the bulk of his life, combines a charm and relatability that burnishes the material with an unassailable honesty, taking the character relationships to magnificent heights and emotional resonance.

Like his real-life subject, Hawkes is complemented with a terrifically engaging and supportive ensemble, all of whom share their own takes on love and its inseparable complexities in an earnestly presented series of frank exchanges as O'Brien takes on the challenge of exploring the sexual experience after spending over thirty years hiding from it behind walls of religious guilt, personal fears, and physical limitations. He finds a host of advocates from the various communities that he inhabits - from his church, the newly arrived and progressively empathetic Father Brendan (William H. Macy), from his profession as a writer, a number of physically disabled yet carnally uninhibited interview subjects, including Carmen (Jennifer Kumiyama), and his attendants Vera and Rod (Moon Bloodgood and W. Earl Brown). Following an mutually unexpected awakening and heartbreak with a warmly attractive assistant (Annika Marks), O’Brien finds himself re-evaluating the sensual possibilities in his life as he discovers the options and feelings that he had never considered.

His research for an article on the sex lives of the disabled leads him to sex surrogate and therapist Cheryl, portrayed with a quietly compelling blend of candor, expertise, coaching, and eroding professional detachment by Helen Hunt. This is extremely tricky narrative territory for the actors and screenwriter/director Ben Lewin, not just for the significant depictions of sexual acts so inherent to the character dynamics and arcs, but also for the danger of falling into the conventional tale of doctor and patient stumbling into a courtship of transference. What happened in real life, and expressed here, is much more complex and inspiring, showing the inevitable and staggeringly strong connection that two such driven people on a shared journey would make, without making that connection seem like the end goal, but rather a very personal and transformative experience that enriches and bonds both participants, and delicately enhances their other relationships rather than merely threatening their stability outside the pre-limited number of sessions.

It’s difficult to describe why some of these choices work so well, particularly when Cheryl’s home life is shown in a less than flattering light with her typically disrespectful teenage son (Jarrod Bailey) and her unemployed and increasingly jealous husband Josh (Adam Arkin), but the two somehow impart enough humanity in their brief scenes to never fully come off as antagonists from which Cheryl needs to extract herself, even as Josh convinces her to convert to Judaism to appease his family, despite her own negative experiences in a conservative Catholic upbringing. Their family problems are surmountable in everyday terms, even though they’d be more than enough of an excuse for divorce in a broader mainstream movie; Lewin, himself a polio survivor, and his producing partner and wife of 30 years Judi Levine, along with their daughter and associate producer Alexandra Lewin, understand that household dynamic well, and Arkin especially essays his role honestly as man who unquestionably loves his wife even as he struggles to understand and open a discussion about what’s happening to her.

Similarly, the ensemble is peppered with other romantic foils, played by James Martinez and Ming Lo, who come off as boorish but believable, at ease with the physicality and confidence that is initially alien to O’Brien. Theirs are not presented so much as alternative outlooks, but rather shades of the same spectrum available in the vast variety of sexual experiences and pursuant analysis. The way that the film gives these supporting characters just enough breathing room to flesh out the world outside of O’Brien’s insularity is one of its most effective and resonant traits, gently zeroing in on the imperfect expansiveness facing all of the characters on their own journeys.

Lewin and editor Lisa Bromwell utilize the rhythms and space of these dynamics sublimely, often placing a reaction shot at just the right moment during an extended dramatic sequence. One of the film’s most memorable moments comes from a single shot of Cheryl walking back to her car after a session, tidily packing up her things, all set to go, when Vera catches up to bring her something that she had forgotten. At once, Cheryl is hit with a reverie of emotion beyond mere sadness, longing, accomplishment, or acceptance, but one that Vera immediately understands, and so too does the audience when seeing her expression change upon witnessing Cheryl’s catharsis.

In a post-film Q&A, Hawkes and Lewin discussed how film, more than any other medium, can capture the actual reactions, nervous tension, and chemistry of two characters meeting for the first time, and there have not been many first meetings in cinema as charged as O’Brien’s first session with Cheryl, in which he feels he must meet thirty years of expectations and repression head on (like going to his own execution, as he says to Vera, and in his real-life article describing the experience). Lewin prefers to get performances built out of the trust established between the director and actors during the casting process rather than in rehearsals, and it pays off hugely here as he shot the session scenes in story order, allowing the vital chemistry between Hawkes and Hunt to develop organically before the audience’s eyes.

Composer Marco Beltrami’s cutesy pizzicato, particularly in the film’s opening newsreel montage showing O’Brien’s life as a Cal student, sometimes overemphasizes the lighthearted aspects of the approach, but it does juxtapose well with the stark introductory images of O’Brien in the iron lung, along with the first challenge that he faces in the story proper, when a cat brushes by his nose, which he has no capability of scratching. Right away, the extremity of his condition is relatable and need not be the focus of the themes to come, and in the more dramatic segments, Beltrami loses the playfulness and delivers soaring yet tempered notes that complement the emotions well without getting in the way of the performances. Depicting an impressive amount of emotional complexity all around rather than settling to make a mere inspirational based-on-a-true-story offering, the cast and crew honor their subjects and material with a light touch - like the sessions themselves, gently guiding the audience through rather heavy experiences with earnest empathy and good humor.

"The Normal Heart" by Larry Kramer (DC production)

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 08:28:51 GMT

“If I had it, would you leave me?"

With AIDS Walk happening this Sunday, it’s about time I wrote a few words about “The Normal Heart”, Larry Kramer’s stage play written from an insider’s mindset in the initial days of the epidemic, set in the then-present of early-1980’s New York City. Having successfully been revived on Broadway last year to sustained acclaim, the production once again asserts its weighty drama at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC - a locale which knows the disease’s damage all too well. Per The Washington Post, as of 2009, 3% of the city’s population has HIV or AIDS, and so there are certainly relevant political messages to be expressed in this passion play, yet what strongly resonated with me was more its backdrop in its characters' search for identity, desperate to land on some cultural definition of their community and values in the face of every aspect of their being coming under challenge by external forces.

Patrick Breen channels Kramer’s anger to some staggeringly sharp peaks and valleys as Ned Weeks, early gay activist and stand-in for the author, who based the script and characters very closely on his own experiences and fellow travelers wrestling with the toll taken upon their population by the disease as well as their surrounding society’s marked indifference and discordance with their general plight. Weeks wields his words violently entirely on instinct, while managing to sandpaper over various levels of sensitivity that he feels towards those he loves the most, including his dashingly joyful lover Felix (Luke Macfarlane) and his brother Ben (John Procaccino). Ned’s relationship with the latter is especially wrenching - formed by the lives of Kramer and his own brother Arthur, who protected his younger sibling against their parents while remaining yet ultimately disapproving of Larry’s homosexuality. The nuance in these dramatic conflicts is quite compelling, driving the narrative beyond its immediate politics.

The play declaratively eschews victimhood in Act I, wherein its aims are almost flatly stated, which would at first seem lazy, yet effectively primes the audience for the much more complex themes to come. Though Ned/Kramer’s perspective comes off quite mightily, it is perhaps most strongly tempered and countered by the agony pushed upon Michael Berresse’s Mickey Marcus, a professional gay man who comes to live in constant fear of the fallout upon his livelihood and sense of self as a result of their organization’s public pressure upon the government to simply be heard. When he has his own monologue about what the lifestyle of free love and countless partners means to him, it is quite the awakening to see the constant conflict between the empowerment coming from those choices, embracing the sexual freedom so frowned upon by those who had bullied him and others like him all their lives, while coming to terms with the costs incurred.

Director George C. Wolfe and set designer David Rockwell’s approach is a fluid, stark one, using mobile furniture and props wheeled on and off the stage by the actors themselves with swift precision between scenes, which are transitioned by sudden frenzied yet efficient darkness, punctuated with the beats of David van Tieghem’s original music and sound design. Text is also projected onto the stage’s back walls, with various quotes about gay culture as well as the effects of AIDS from sources of all persuasions and opinions. The list of names for the ever-growing number of fatalities from the disease also illuminates the surroundings, fueling the characters’ rage and determination, including that of Dr. Emma Brookner (Patricia Wettig), based on the real-life Linda Laubenstein, who treated countless numbers of initial AIDS patients and came to furiously criticize the government’s sluggish response to the CDC’s key findings and assessments. Brookner’s monologue veers fully into outright messaging, but Wettig grounds it in the character’s own frustration and feelings of powerlessness, elevating the performance above mere didacticism.

I am equally inspired and horrified that Kramer’s text is still as powerful and relevant as it was nearly 30 years ago - surely we as a society can progress beyond the ugly judgmentalism and harmoniously collaborate and discuss these issues in order to solve big problems. There are other diseases that terrify me more than the one at the centerpiece of this play, primarily because their causes are less understood, making prevention that much more challenging, yet the destruction visited by AIDS upon a significant number of an underserved population is one of the longest wakeup calls we as a people have had to acknowledge and address. And so we Walk, we donate, we stay informed. And we look after each other, gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves and our fellows along the way.

65. MOONRISE KINGDOM

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 07:37:01 GMT

dir. Wes Anderson, USA 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/

Those who already hate Wes Anderson's work are highly unlikely to ever change their minds with each new offering of his that they experience, particularly this one. But those whose sensibilities find themselves in tune with those of this idiosyncratic, resolutely American auteur will feel their appreciation reaching another crescendo with his latest work. Another exploration of wounded children and their broken mentors in the upper-middle class diaspora, this one features actual schoolyard youngsters (Jared Gilman as Sam, and Kara Hayward as Suzy) in the lead roles, making understated and impressive debuts as a pair of runaway lovers on an idyllic island that is home to their families and a centralized retreat for the Khaki Scouts, of which Sam is an learned but downtrodden member, and in which Suzy increasingly finds herself on the outs with her distracted parents and the administrators of the Church in whose pageants she is obliged to participate.

Anderson's vision is as adorable and collaborative as ever, weaving eternally intricate aural and visual designs with deceptively breezy performances to express the redemptive qualities of the character arcs. This body of work would be an interesting pairing with that of fellow director Todd Field (LITTLE CHILDREN, IN THE BEDROOM), similarly rooted in Americana and the institutions at the forefront of its zenith, but with a more sobering and despairing worldview.

Which is not to say that Anderson's films merely prance about with whimsical quirks holding naught but humorous purpose - they issue challenges to the institutions in which they are set (prep schools in RUSHMORE, patriarchies in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, matriarchies and colonialism in THE DARJEELING LIMITED, etc.), yet depicting them with fondness with the goal of advancing them rather than merely criticizing or parodying them. Here the institutions represented are the Church and the Boy ("Khaki") Scouts, both of which figured personally into my own childhood, so I had some key connections to the film's themes, having grown up memorizing Bible verses and reading about the adventures of Robert Baden-Powell as a spy in the British military before founding the Scouts. The intimidating yet serene nature of chapels, as well as the invigoration and homesickness attendant with outdoor camping trips are familiar to me, and informed my read into the characters as they navigated their various arcs and conflicts towards a gloriously staged and emotional resolution.

The film's soundtrack is masterfully eclectic, with contributions from both of Anderson's prior composers, Mark Mothersbaugh and Alexandre Desplat, as well as samplings of period country (Hank Williams), chamber music, contemporary classical compositions (showcasing Benjamin Britten), and French love songs. These and other bold choices resonate with consideration and commitment to a clear vision that has room for collaboration (indeed, Anderson has a remarkable ability to communicate his direction while delegating significantly, as when he reportedly made THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX while largely communicating remotely with his crew). Detractors will always abound, but the rest of us can continue to enjoy the enriching experience of watching the progression of this memorable set of careers.

a poem for the friends and family who helped me understand 6/4 this year

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:57:50 GMT

we grew up silent, holding our hearts in reserve;
our deepest cares never said so out loud.
yet we still forget, granted more than we deserve;
with all things fair, have we made you proud?

as night grows darker, let this not be but a dirge;
our fears laid bare before a mighty crowd.
make this a marker of our strongest surge--
we steer despair away from those so cowed.

yet in the end, we face the same great void,
thus fading so like the faintest cloud.
but my good friend: this hate will be destroyed,
parading without its greatest shroud.

58. MIS: HUMAN SECRET WEAPON

Mon, 14 May 2012 03:59:11 GMT

dir. Junichi Suzuki, Japan/USA 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2318595/

"Yesterday's enemy is today's friend."

Narrative filmmaker Junichi Suzuki has recently taken to directing documentaries to relate the history of Japanese Americans, which is relatively unknown and uncelebrated on both sides of the Pacific, despite the massive impact it has had in furthering the multi-cultural resolution, from the most contentious times and the ensuing fallout.

Suzuki's previous offering centered around the more well-known 442nd regiment of Japanese American infantry, who faced combat on the European front, while this latest project lays out the experiences, contributions, and reflections of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) enlisted men and women serving in the Pacific theater, dating back to even before WWII, and recognized very recently with Congressional Gold Medals.

These Kibei and Nisei were instrumental in interrogations, interceptions, diversions, and other operations of war, but also ended up helping soldiers on both sides retain their humanity in the face of the overwhelming loss of life all around - small memories such as an MIS man evoking an emotional and even grateful response from a Caucasian officer by showing him a photo found on a fallen Japanese combatant, capturing two visages, perhaps the dead man's wife and mother, thereby allowing the officer to recognize their enemies as fellow people, rather than falling into the all-too-easy trap of disengaging from them as Others.

This type of shared empathy also bled out to the other side, such as when a number of Okinawan civilians holed themselves up in caves, prepared to commit governmentally-mandated mass suicide as American forces approached, only to be ultimately rescued physically and emotionally by their brethren in the MIS who could understand them both linguistically and culturally. On a larger scale, the MIS was also present to assist with the post-nuclear devastation, and to help reconstruct the country as a whole following Japan's surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

It's a real privilege to spend time onscreen with these veterans while they are still around, given how rare this information has been. Suzuki bridges the interview footage with lovely digital photography of the relevant landscapes - from San Francisco's Presidio where the MIS were trained to the Imperial Palace, the rich colors set right a turbulent world worth preserving, while an impressive amount of stock footage and photos show the captivating subjects in their prime, juxtaposed with other recognizable historical figures such as MacArthur and Hirohito.

The piece is narrated by Lane Nishikawa, who is a fitting choice given his long career as a proponent of this and other Japanese American history through his stagework, though his delivery is often too authoritative - along with Kitaro's sweeping score, these elements detract from the more reserved and personal nature of these interviews. But these are far from grossly manipulative aesthetic choices, and it is rather dismaying to see this film so coolly received by professional critics. Besides the obvious fact that any effort to record and promote this little-recognized history should be supported rather than nitpicked at, its underlying themes of forgiveness, evinced in so many of its most memorable segments, are utterly timeless and affecting.

49. LIBERAL ARTS

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:30:17 GMT

dir. Josh Radnor, USA 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872818

"Think about it- you can walk around here, say 'I'm a poet,' and no one will punch you in the face."

The SF Film Society Members Screening for this year's fest was Josh Radnor's LIBERAL ARTS, a film I would otherwise not have seen, but enjoyed immensely- between just having seen DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, and similarly spent time last week with Cal students as does the protagonist here at his alma mater, Kenyon, while accumulating more visceral reminders of my age as of late, the story and characters are hitting me at just the right time in my life.

Indeed, Radnor captures this moment in the post-quarterlife crisis with tremendous earnestness and introspection, and conveys many relevant emotional ideas with warm visuals- it is so pleasant and invigorating to see American independent movies continue to trend in being so much more grounded and optimistic than their predecessors. Like DAMSELS, the college experience here is closer to the one I had, characterized more by big conversations and soul-searching than boozing and other Dionysian pursuits, which are more part of the atmosphere.

Radnor's script toes the line between treating the characters as devices and actual memories well enough to give the actors room to put their stamp on the material- while the writerly strings are still somewhat apparent, the arcs are so effective that the work stands as a significant benchmark in Radnor's creative evolution, one that is relatable and seems attainable through the passion and empathy that his characters espouse.

Big thanks to SFFS for programming this screening- I've previously kept Radnor and "How I Met Your Mother" at somewhat of a distance, having not quite related to those characters as so many of my friends have, but he really showed me something here, taking personal experience to celebrate the developmental safety of university and what comes after, using the usual homecoming arc and conventions in honest ways that resonated with me more than others of its kind that felt more forced (GARDEN STATE being foremost in my mind at present, though definitely not without its own charms). I can't wait for more of my friends and family to see this film so that we can talk about it together- I'd like nothing better.

41. DAMSELS IN DISTRESS

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:43:12 GMT

dir. Whit Stillman, USA 2011.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667307/

"This soap, and this scent, are what give me hope."

14 years after THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, Whit Stillman's latest has been worth the wait, jam-packed with dialogue, characters, and style that are as witty, elegant, and adorably relatable as ever. Though the story still takes place in a WASP-y conclave (this time a women's college that has recently gone co-ed), it is undeniably a setting of the present, featuring Stillman's most pan-ethnic cast of Americans yet (Megalyn Echikunwoke, "The Wire"'s Jermaine Crawford, and Doug Yasuda, along with cameos from Aubrey Plaza of "Parks and Recreation" and Alia Shawkat of "Arrested Development"), solidifying the (relative) universality of his themes amongst the upper-middle class.

It wouldn't be difficult, as with the previous films, to dismiss the antics and dialogue as broadly un-naturalistic, yet I've always found the characters of these stories to express their ideas and flaws with such specificity, such as the motif of soap and comforting cleanliness in the quote above, that I immediately embraced the film's indulgences and arrogances, which mirror my own, as they wonderfully formed a rabbit hole of frivolously intellectual yet genuinely empathetic conversations - the kind that I have when I'm enjoying life the most.

The cast and crew hit just the right tone to avoid the trivial quirkiness of mumblecore, from the earnestness of the delivery to the heavenly hues of the radiant daytime photography by Doug Emmett (in contrast to the earlier METROPOLITAN and THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, which took place mostly in the hours of late-night partying) - colors end up playing a key role in the events, and the digital print that I saw did a fine job of making them stand out in the gorgeous settings, though I have not been able to find any technical details of the shoot yet... Stillman strikes me as a director who would try to use film if possible, though the look here certainly served the story well.

Stillman's films continue to welcome audiences with the conviviality of a dinner party (the opening credits are still designed like formal invitations, to my delight), while resonating with an observant wit that opens up both larger musings on the cultivation and preservation of fellowship, as well as the liberating and invigorating rush of allowing yourself to potentially look ridiculous in order to show the world who you are- DISCO especially kicked off this throughline with its closing dance number (following the more contained cha-cha in METROPOLITAN, getting bolder with the limbo in BARCELONA), full-throatily launching into the musical territory that has its own space and time in multiple segments this time around. I'd honestly love to see this movie projected in dance halls, wherein the audience can put away their folding chairs and participate along with the characters, as invited to by the onscreen titles detailing the steps. I state this even as someone who is not necessarily a fan of the sing-along trend that keeps so many repertory movie houses afloat nowadays, so enrapturing did I find the spirit of this experience.

Capping off a Sunday with this film was especially fitting after catching an earlier screening of HARLAN COUNTY USA in honor of director Barbara Kopple's 35+ years of making staggeringly engaging documentaries, as I was first introduced to the works of Stillman and Kopple through their respective episodes of "Homicide: Life on the Street", a show which took the still unparalleled step of continually introducing independent filmmakers to network television, while giving them enough creative freedom to allow their contributions to stand out on their own, prompting fans like me to seek out their other projects, given how distinctive their approaches were to these familiar characters. And what a payoff that effort has continued to yield...

24. JOHN CARTER

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 08:18:53 GMT

dir. Andrew Stanton, USA 2012.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/

The adventure serial is back, in a meticulously constructed and considered modern realization of 19th century aesthetics and sensibilities. Following a clumsily diffuse marketing campaign and lengthy reputation as a problem project whose budget skyrocketed beyond what most would expect from a literary franchise that has somewhat faded from popular memory, the actual movie honors the craft of good storytelling and imagination while managing a hefty amount of scope and material. Upon finally seeing this, most decisions that I had questioned coming in were addressed to the benefit of the narrative experience, including the one to title the film JOHN CARTER rather than the original A PRINCESS OF MARS or the more obvious JOHN CARTER OF MARS, as the film hinges a great deal on the protagonist's character arc, despite the notable attention to detail in the backstory and history of the alien culture in which he finds himself, related fairly organically through the thrilling events and dynamic interactions between the various players.

The leads won me over more quickly than I expected - I had felt previously that Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins looked too contemporary to fit into the world of a Burroughs era, but their hard work paid off and they inhabit their roles entirely, assisted by some fluid editing, and flanked by a dream team of HBO regulars and strong character actors from both sides of the pond. Similarly the effects work primarily serves the story, fleshing out the society, creatures, and mechanics of Mars in its fantastic and practical facets, while Stanton and crew do not shy way from depicting far from idealistic aspects of the heroes and villains alike, making the setting feel that much more real.

It will be interesting to see if critics and audiences can receive this movie in the face of the prejudice promoted by what has largely been reported on it thus far, most of which has described financial and political elements peripheral to the creative process and journey. As stated previously, it is a revival of a type of story that is not necessarily in fashion with our current times, making it possible to dismiss by those already eager to do so. Yet it's grounded in relatable and even relevant conflicts of both inter- and intra-personal flavors, with a great deal of fun (yes, Woola, the faithful dog-like Calot, steals every shot that he's in). I'm still not sure how this project garnered such seemingly unwavering and generous studio support, given its checkered history, but I'm quite glad that it did.

16. CORIOLANUS

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:05:48 GMT

dir. Ralph Fiennes, UK 2011.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1372686/

"Every gash was an enemy's grave."

It's mighty enticing for directors of film and theater alike, especially ones with classical training, to recontextualize the words and scenarios of Shakespeare away from their originally intended backdrops. The language of the Bard is already so figurative that it lends itself well to such an approach, though complex enough that one cannot go about it lazily - along with the poetic nature and style of the dialogue, the characters and plots carry with them a considerable amount of backstory referencing events much better known amongst Elizabethan audiences than those of today.

Here, scribe John Logan is fluent enough with the text and its metaphorical underpinnings to reframe them into a timely, immediately relevant setting without miring the story in directly political or didactic messaging. The story of a soldier scorned by the mutability of his people is not an unfamiliar one in history, especially of Rome, but it finds particular resonance in today's first world society, where violence is globally present and yet ever distant from our daily lives. If war is an extension of politics, as von Clauswitz put forth, the reverse is equally true, perhaps even inseparable from the best and worst aspects of human nature.

In the tradition of Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh, star and first-time director Ralph Fiennes finds his own voice with which to film Shakespeare's work, and earnestly presents the ugly business of warfare, both in staging military engagements in urban combat, as well as unflinchingly framing himself in shots of ill glamor, efficiently capturing the range of his title character as a man who is as simply honest as he is bloodthirsty. A life of battle allows Caius Martius Coriolanus to be true to himself, without prejudice or perhaps even malice, at least not consciously towards the people - his hate is initially a mere channel through which he fuels his military effectiveness for his country - while peacetime and its attendant politicking overwhelm his straightforward nature with its unnatural demands of, in essence, celebrity, as well as the ability to lie effectively.

Filmed largely in Serbia, Barry Ackroyd's handheld camerawork serves the material well - in every scene, the audience shares each literal step taken by the various characters, set against each other in the flattened perspective of long lenses; the compositions are just unsteady enough to provide naturalism without dizzying the experience. Fiennes also makes good use of a number of local Serbian actors to fill in the ranks with strong presences; complementing a remarkably pan-ethnic cast, also representing actors at all stages along their careers. In particular, the production is savvy enough to have snapped up Lubna Azabal (absolutely transcendent as the revolutionary-turned-prisoner-turned-refugee over the course of the many decades covered in INCENDIES) and Jessica Chastain (respectively luminous and formidable in THE TREE OF LIFE and THE DEBT) for key roles as they were both on the cusp of becoming strongly sought after for higher-profile projects.

Ilan Eshkeri provides the high-tension score, and Fiennes marshals all of these artists to produce a fine, fierce drama. Logan peppers the script with a number of effective narrative devices (e.g., newscasters, punditry, video conferencing, very brief subtitles establishing the key locations as they appear) to ensure the comprehensibility of the dialogue and backstory, without compromising the text, and Fiennes executes those concepts to the hilt, even casting real-life anchorman Jon Snow, who delivers his lines with his experienced timbre while also demonstrating a facility for the Shakespearean cadence. The results of these and other choices yield one of the most naturalistic renderings of Shakespeare that I've seen, even among other successful modern adaptations such as Michael Almereyda's HAMLET set in Manhattan, or Baz Luhrmann's more stylized but textually faithful ROMEO + JULIET. Fiennes has proven himself a hell of a director here, and though I don't wish typecasting upon anyone, I can't deny that I would love to see him take on another of the Bard's works for his next go as well.

14. THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:44:14 GMT

dir. Herbert G. Ponting, UK 1924.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764657/

Filmmaker Ponting accompanied Robert Falcon Scott on the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, an effort that began in 1910 and took over two years, with unexpected and tragic results. Honoring the crew of the Terra Nova with a vastly impressive amount of footage that relays many of their experiences in the form of tidily edited vignettes, the film sometimes strikes an uncomfortably jingoistic tone, but one that is generally earned by the evident challenges inherent to the voyage, shown in the inclement weather conditions, as well as the sheer epic span of time in which these men journeyed far from home with little to no creature comforts.

Along the way, Ponting creates novel techniques that would come to be standard for documentary films, especially ones centered around nature and the animal kingdom, the key difference being that Ponting doesn't try to hide his manipulations of the situations, and rather describes the interventions of himself and the crew on the proceedings in detail. The forthrightness of this subjectivity is both discomfiting and refreshing - most modern nature pieces such as PLANET EARTH take a very strict non-disruptive approach to observing the wildlife, but here the navymen harpoon a killer whale in order to prevent it from snaring a baby seal whose mother has been seen struggling to get back on land, or chase around a flock of penguins in a bit of fun, even after noting the harsher aspects of their existence, such as their clear disadvantages against the skua gulls that easily swoop down and steal eggs before their surface-bound cousins can react. In such segments there is a sense of both innocence and exceptionalism that startlingly hits upon how closely coupled those notions can be.

Accompanying stills and "second unit" photography also reveal how Ponting captured certain shots, showing him and his improvised camera rigs on the ship's mast or a sled. His resourcefulness is energizing to see, and the results remain often breathtaking even now. At the same time, he's sharp enough not to dwell very long on relating his methodology, but asides just enough to add to the context of the material he's filming, while literally putting the audience on site with him. By and large the film balances this personal approach with the professionalism of the editing and the camerawork to come off as more than just a home video, even one taken in adventurous locales. Yet, it's interesting to see the directorial choices these early documentarians had to make given their technological limitations - narrated entirely with intertitles, there are times when the text literally tells the viewer where to look in the next shot - this comes off as far less clumsy than one might think, and adds to the veracity of the more observational segments.

The digital restoration of this nearly century-old footage is remarkably clean without making it look unnaturally so, while Simon Fisher Turner's modern electronic score is dynamic and layers several different motifs for the various moods of the piece. The British Film Institute is to be commended for their work in preserving this important sample of early cinema, but I also hope that a restored film print can tour the world as well - tonight's presentation was on DVD, making for a different and compromised experience. Still, the material shines through and its impact and contribution to film history is now available to be explored by new audiences.

10. NORWEGIAN WOOD

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:24:01 GMT

dir. Tran Anh Hung, Japan 2010.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270842

"Only degenerates feel sorry for themselves."

Vietnamese auteur Tran's peaceful adaptation of Haruki Murakami's modern romantic masterpiece takes its viewers along a stream of desires almost too powerful to bear. Utilizing the full stillness of digital photography executed by Taiwanese DP Mark Lee Ping Bin, the film depicts the wide complement of Japanese seasons alongside the depths of an enthralling love story- perhaps not since the days of Akira Kurosawa have the elements of wind, rain, and snow been so utterly cinematic.

Perfectly cast with actors possessing the ability to sustain emotions over lengthy and immersive single shots, often while hitting rather complicated marks, the performances sing with evocative chemistry, painstakingly drawn with seemingly effortless naturalism. These characters come alive as human beings grasping at closeness as universally sought by those of us left behind in life's indifferent wake- in the face of overwhelming tragedy, the ones who choose to live ever create something memorable by means of the strongest survival instincts.

The movie features a generous number of inviting visual and aural motifs, the latter delivered by the strings of the Emperor Quartet performing emotionally complex original compositions by Jonny Greenwood. Lively lighting dynamically bounces off of glossy and warm skin tones, presenting a friendly color palette in an honest celebration of vitality amidst the harshest that the world can lay upon us.

Devastatingly sensual without ever relying on getting graphic, the film resides in minutely intimate moments. There may be no definitive expression of true love, but in experiencing this story, I felt all that I at one time or another accepted as the complete surrender to the demands of my heart and soul. One day, I will revisit this movie alongside someone new that I unquestionably care about with full faith, but until then, I soldier on in good cheer.

I am moved beyond tears.

6. PERFECT SENSE

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:34:51 GMT

dir. David Mackenzie, Germany/UK/Denmark/Sweden 2011.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1439572

"At least you've got your health," we assure each other, all the while feeling largely invincible while keeping our fingers crossed, fleeing the never-quite-distant memories of the torturous times when our bodies diverged from the physiological status quo. Anyone who has experienced a bout of lower back pain for even just a few days can attest to just how jarring it is to realize how much literal heavy lifting those muscles and discs perform constantly, as basic tasks such as putting on socks or rising from a seated position become utterly associated with searing pain. Being able to relate to the body's fragility and proximity to terrifying discomfort is vital to investing in the human drama of PERFECT SENSE, the latest release from independent Scottish director David Mackenzie. in which a global epidemic slowly robs people of their sensory perceptions, one by one.

It's a bold premise to be sure, and it doesn't follow any of the technological conventions of popular science fiction, and instead gently asks its audience to buy into a couple of fantastic notions, to draw upon their own experiences with helplessness and disease, to grasp the will to retain and/or rediscover the power of empathy, perhaps the strongest sense we can rely upon. Mackenzie is also known for his previous collaboration with star Ewan McGregor in 2003, YOUNG ADAM, which I have not seen in some time, but left an impression on me as a bleak and brutally unsentimental portraiture of a group of working-class Glaswegians mired in the damage they inflict upon each other. As such, I was on edge while watching McGregor, co-lead Eva Green, and various other citizens of the world scraping and clawing to hold on to some semblance of societal life in the face of emotionally and physically crippling syndromes that hit spontaneously and unequivocally - the darkness of the previous film left me wholly unsure if the characters here could come to value the human closeness that the luckiest of us share, and whether it even mattered thematically.

At the same time, I embraced this uncertainty, bolstered by the confidence with which the film moves along, continually capturing moments in its multi-national locations (again mostly in Glasgow, but also in India, Kenya, and Mexico) that affirm the significance of minor joys in our quality of life- sudden smiles, rays of sunlight, the relief of release from uncontrollable weights. The disease that fuels the narrative is quite the dramatic convenience, totally unexplained and perfectly paced with the protagonists' arcs, and as such, works well for audiences that recognize a stage as a laboratory and breeding ground for character reactions. The responses brought forth by these melodramatic events are rooted in relatable experiences, and the filmmakers strive to emphasize this universality by often juxtaposing the emotional trauma of the leads alongside that of the secondary players, as well as nameless extras scattered the world over.

The layered conceit of the premise is that just prior to the loss of a sense, the infected also involuntarily express some extreme but common impulse - the disease first manifests as an overwhelming sense of tragedy, engulfing each person with memories of profound losses before taking away their ability to smell. Epidemiologist Susan (Green) labors to decipher, contain, and cure this so-called Spontaneous Olfactory Syndrome, while gourmet chef Michael (McGregor) rallies his colleagues to experiment with new culinary creations to compensate for the dwindling customers' inability to augment their dining experience with their noses. Danish writer Kim Fupz Aakeson's instinct to present the story from the twin perspectives of science and culture's agents is a compelling one, providing a strong backbone to the potentially sprawling chaos of the growing crisis, while complementing both leads with backstories that illustrate the ironic humanity in the common and unexpected incapacity to empathize with our loved ones at significant junctures.

The final elements tying these themes together are the reassuring and nostalgic narration, and the elegiac score by Max Richter. Giles Nutthens' cinematography sometimes gets deliberately jittery and features some relatively harsh lighting, yielding a mixed bag of effectual visual imbalance, but overall results in a clean look that works for compositional complexity that can be revisited and studied. Mackenzie has helmed an independent and modestly financed film that yet features a rich scope surrounding the end of the daily life as we know it, while expressing a surprising amount of faith in our institutions to cope with and even provide invaluable assistance in the direst of times. When a television flashes the simple text of "WE WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED" over black space, I did not get a Big Brother feel at all, but rather an unexpected sense of comfort rallying against all modern instincts to cynically condemn the media, the government, corporations, and damn near all organizations altogether. As with most movies over the past year, this story has divided critics and audiences rather passionately, and I'm not sure what to say in response to those who hated this experience, but hope that others can share in this journey that stirred my sensibilities beautifully.

4. HAYWIRE

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:18:33 GMT

dir. Steven Soderbergh, USA/Ireland 2011.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1506999/

Soderbergh and writer Lem Dobbs' last project together, 1999's THE LIMEY, is perhaps the former's most championed work among his fans, an absorbingly oblique revenge drama with stunning editing that recalled and revived the iconography of 1960's cinema to layer the characters' history folding into their present. The film also nicely complemented Soderbergh's mainstream breakout hit of the previous year, OUT OF SIGHT (following a decade or so exploring the independent circuit exclusively with various, but mostly minor levels of success), establishing the auteur's first successful pairing of popcorn and arthouse efforts to come. Their entertainingly contentious DVD commentary set the record straight that many of the directorial choices that were praised, such as the single shot of Wilson entering and exiting a warehouse full of combatants, with all acts of violence in the interim kept offscreen, were actually scripted, whereas those that were criticized, such as the amorphous nature of the backstory, were Soderbergh's deliberate deviations from Dobbs' screenplay.

It's not yet clear to what extent Soderbergh adhered to Dobbs' blueprint this time around in HAYWIRE, but both films' protagonists are direct people of action, and their motivations are similarly revealed in elliptical forms such as flashbacks within flashbacks, though the themes are arguably quite more light here. Indeed, when it comes to the musical score, Soderbergh's more frequent collaborators are Cliff Martinez for his heavier films such as TRAFFIC, SOLARIS, and CONTAGION, and David Holmes for his breezier fare like the aforementioned OUT OF SIGHT, the OCEAN'S 11 movies, and this project.

And yet, the stakes feel higher than in those caper films, as the story touches on some of the international intrigue that feels at home in the director's more politically-charged settings, so the result somewhat hybridizes the two major styles often characterizing his work, somewhat like an inverse of THE INFORMANT, which took a purely comedic tack while depicting serious corporate collusion. The real-world context for HAYWIRE's plot is the prominence of private contractors in American paramilitary operations, and the corruption that it attracts, but the story keeps its depicted scope and web of players pretty lean, yielding a smaller budget (a reported $25M, and a bargain at that given the various locales, with assistance from Ireland's tax credit for locally-produced films - temporary job creation in action) and luring an all-star cast (not that Soderbergh generally has a problem in this arena). At the very least as a result of this project, Soderbergh and crew have become much more fluent in capturing choreographed action, and have added several new actors to their informal repertory company, one of whom, Channing Tatum, has already contributed his talents to the director's next effort, MAGIC MIKE.

Indeed, Soderbergh has always gotten excellent performances, often working with newcomers, or taking established actors to the next level. Here Gina Carano makes her acting debut, and comes off as well at home on camera, both in terms of drama and action. Her Mallory Kane, star operative for a private firm contracted by the American government, exudes expedience, caution, and charm, often all at once, by keeping her expressions and gestures economical. While this is not a risky or complicated choice, it is a wise one for an initial outing, and it more than fits the character. She plays well off of the other major actors in the movie, striking various levels of trust or tension with each, rooting the audience in her suspicions and tactics. As with her MMA experience, the hand-to-hand combat scenarios here are thrilling and swift, with the goal of incapacitation over all other considerations, personal or not- these scenes looked grueling to learn, rehearse, and execute but also absolute fun for the actors and stunt team.

HAYWIRE might ultimately turn out to be merely a building block in Soderbergh's oeuvre, but it's by no means an insignificant one, judging by the new tools he's acquired in this go-around. Hopefully, Dobbs is equally satisfied with the results, but either way, should be required to join Soderbergh for another commentary on this movie's video release. The scales of direct storytelling opposite thematic resonance may swing between THE LIMEY and this movie, but there's certainly room for both when the output is this prolific, and as datapoints along a curve of narrative effectiveness, they are as fascinatingly instructive as they are entertaining.

135. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:46:06 GMT

dir. David Fincher, USA/Sweden/UK/Germany 2011.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/

David Fincher has spent much of his directorial career exploring the chilliest impulses at the seams of humanity, and in several films focusing on serial killings, couples the protagonists' search for truth to their search for Evil. Inevitably, the banality of evil is revealed at the end of the journey, and the survivors keep their souls and the audience from succumbing entirely to the bleak despair of the scenario by sheer will. The victories of SEVEN, ZODIAC, and this American adaptation of Stieg Larsson's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO are small ones, but ones that undeniably declare the heroes' unshaken (or, in this case, slowly reconstructed) attachment to goodness and belief in others.

Of particular topicality in this film (as well as its source material, which I have not yet read, nor have I yet seen the previous Swedish adaptations, and so am not in a good position to discuss its relative merits and drawbacks, though I will later posit some ideas as to why it can and does work regardless) is Larsson's depiction of the power of the press under suspicion - the institution of investigative journalism has often shown its methods to be unnerving at best and wholly illegal at worst, even when its ends are morally sound, as in the 1998 Chiquita phone hacking scandal, or not so (the ongoing News of the World debacle). Here Larsson, himself a career reporter, instead presents two protagonists, both a part of and bruised by the treatment of that institution, who find ways to nevertheless track down truths worth sharing, and for the key audients within the film, in whom our heroes remarkably trust after all they've been through, the proof of such truths is far more important than the manner with which it was obtained.

Embodying this superpower of the press is disgraced yet righteous and keenly observant writer Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and the formidably skilled, thorough, and resilient researcher and investigator, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). The character of Lisbeth, with her photographic memory, lithe and deadly physicality, computer hacking skills, and immediate forthrightness, is the reason this movie exists - a presence so strong and compelling that it can be well served with multiple interpretations and continue to entrance and awaken audiences everywhere. Lisbeth always has her defenses ready, fortified with an outer aloofness, but Mara finds the soul of the role underneath all that, without compromising the sheer durability of her whole being, by showing how Lisbeth, despite being subjected to horrific experiences many times over the course of her twenty or so years since birth, refuses to give up on herself, and by extension, the idea of goodness.

And so as mentioned above, though the search for evil is what drives the plot of the film - namely, Blomkvist's enlistment by a retired industrialist (Christopher Plummer) to look into his niece's decades-old disappearance, convinced that another member of their family murdered her, its actual resonance comes from the heroes' ability to recognize goodness amidst all the unrepentant evil in their lives. And from this collaborative recognition taken with Larsson's ideal for the power of the press, along with Mikael and Lisbeth's capacities for empathy and their talents for observation, comes the potential for the salvation of the first world - a society beset with the failings of its institutions finding cause for hope in its individuals.

Fincher and company visually convey this ideal among failings with a stark contrast in color, memorably opening the movie with a credits sequence from Blur Studios, scored with Trent Reznor, Karen O, and Atticus Ross's cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (it might have been better if the track had not also been used in the teaser, keeping its impact a surprise contained only in the film), consisting of computer-generated abstract gothic imagery, a study in pure levels of black, against the nearly overblown white tones in the Millenium offices and the snow of the Vanger estate. There are no shades of gray or inviting curves to be found in the right angles of every structure in this microcosm, yet there is nuance to be found in the expressions and reactions that the protagonists share. The song itself is something that might be playing in Lisbeth's head at all times, Reznor and Ross's hard electronic riffs and beats colliding with Karen O's wailing and fierce vocals - a brutal piece of industrial pop that sums up the entire movie in sonic form.

An uncompromised release from a mainstream studio, the film benefits from Fincher's precision and experience, while drafting on Larsson's vision for an unwavering idealism in the face of everything to the contrary. Mara distinguishes herself more than admirably in the role of a lifetime, committing fully to Lisbeth's attitude and tenacity while exuding at least a twinge of humanity even in her darkest moments. SEVEN closed with Detective Somerset's declaration: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." Now Fincher has expressed that statement, by way of Larsson and Mara, in perhaps its purest and most illustrative form.

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, VOLUME 1*: TINTIN IN AMERICA

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:59:32 GMT

*Though this publication is labeled Volume 1, there is a preceding book, similarly delineated, that collects the prior stories TINTIN IN THE LAND OF THE SOVIETS and TINTIN IN THE CONGO.

Having not grown up with Tintin, his faithful and witty canine companion Snowy, and their supporting cast of allies and nemeses, this is my first impression of Hergé's universe, with which I wanted to familarize myself before seeing the new feature film. This volume contains TINTIN IN AMERICA, CIGARS OF THE PHARAOH, and THE BLUE LOTUS - still quite early in the Adventures series, these stories find Hergé slowly finding his narrative footing while already displaying a superior mastery of draftsmanship. The author's ability to render large amounts of detail with only a handful of pen strokes is truly impressive, and the richness of range in the four-color separation very well services and enhances the various and exotic locales to which our heroes travel.

The serial format is evident in these tales, where the plot often moves quite swiftly for a few pages and then abruptly shifts locale and scenario as the next chapter begins (in recent works, the television show "24" exhibited much the same approach, as the writers cleared plotted out no more than 4 or 5 episodes at a time, resulting in very jarring transitions between narrative blocks - and always, the current villain had a boss who became the target for the next segment). TINTIN IN AMERICA stands on its own as Hergé dabbles in various characterizations for the antagonists, creating no memorable secondary character per se, while establishing a number of templates for the recurring supporting cast that would be introduced in the following two stories.

The fast pace often yields some amusing and rather politically-charged commentary - in less than 10 panels, on a single page, oil is discovered on an Indian reservation, where developers offer Tintin vast sums for drilling rights, then just as immediately bilk the rightful owners out of any compensation whatsoever when Tintin informs that the oil is on Native American land. By the bottom of the page, the surrounding area has already been turned into a full metropolis, and a traffic cop mocks Tintin for going about town in his just-acquired cowboy garb. Similarly, in THE BLUE LOTUS, the Japanese Army stage a faux terrorist act on a Chinese railway in order to justify an invasion on the territory - mirroring an actual historical event - and all of this takes place on a single page. It's an intriguing technique that exposes real-world incidents and considerations to a young audience while keeping the focus on Tintin and Snowy's investigations and predicaments.

Still, this is the early 1930's, and while the aforementioned examples are notably progressive (as is another page in which Tintin and a Chinese orphan share a laugh over the inaccuracies of the respective Asian and European stereotypes with which each had been indoctrinated), the artwork contains a number of ethnic caricatures that are worth mentioning. The art style straddles a line between youth-oriented and political cartooning, though it never feels quite mean-spirited. This is, however, a semi-updated version of the original work, and has a number of edits to alter a few of the more blatantly offensive representations - still, a couple crudely rendered African American characters appear in the background, though all in all, only the villainous characters really seem exaggerated beyond any recognizable nuance, and that includes Caucasian antagonists as well (in particular, a rotund, high-society American who bullies the Chinese underclass).

Along the same lines, Tintin himself exhibits both admirable and questionable behaviors. He's quite the mensch when he encounters those whom he perceives to be in need, and is always rewarded in turn with assistance at key moments from his new friends. On the other hand, he's surprisingly quite quick to violence, particularly towards any sort of underling who may or may not be out to apprehend him (to be fair, he is imprisoned quite often and is understandably sensitive to being thrown back into such situations). In the latter two stories, Hergé develops these interactions quite well with the introduction of a number of recurring foils that play upon both Tintin's heroic and aggressive tendencies, to dynamic effect.

While it's not likely that most readers would consider this volume particularly nuanced, it manages to dip its toes into a surprising number of real-world complexities, while mostly maintaining a strong sense of excitement and a growing affection for its characters (and ultimately, its settings). Tintin himself comes off as a general-purpose hero, and even his trademark hairdo is often obscured by his numerous disguises, making him something of a blank slate into which young readers can project themselves. As he gains more complex foils in the growing supporting cast of the subsequent volumes, I expect the character to come more into his own and become better defined through their overlapping arcs. Until then, this is a lovely study in iconographic linework with burgeoning storytelling skill from a master in the making.

98. PUNISHED

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:10:58 GMT

dir. Law Wing-Cheong, HK 2011.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1604670/

Law Wing-Cheong's PUNISHED is a resonant Hong Kong gangster tragedy - part family melodrama, part detective story, part meditative revenge tale, with some genuinely suspenseful action sequences in the mix. Starring the ageless Anthony Wong as a ruthless and devoted real estate developer whose spoiled and drug-addled daughter (Janice Man) is kidnapped, and the excellent Richie Ren as his loyal right hand, the movie is a soulful snapshot of wounded families - as always, contextually enhanced in the post-1997 era. Another recommended success from Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai's Milkyway Image Ltd.

Pure Enjoyment Film Festival (ASL), 2010

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:23:20 GMT

Welcome, friends! What follows over the next week or so is a listing that comprises a programme of films released in the United States in 2010, in the form of a virtual "film festival" consisting of seven double features, each of which explore complementary themes, methodologies, and tastes in intriguing ways. I will keep this introduction brief - those wanting more detail on the criteria and process behind the selection of these films can visit the first essay from 2006, but suffice to restate this this is an attempt at something slightly less arbitrary and yet perhaps more open than a typical top-10 or 20-so personal favorites, at the very least an ongoing experiment at relegating personal taste to be only part of the much larger critical process, and indeed of life in general. Hopefully the notes for each cinematic pairing will make the intent of this undertaking clear, without me expounding further here, even though I really can't stop talking about these sorts of ideas. Please give me feedback as we go along here... otherwise I end up with something half-baked like the nearly-entirely-unexamined lists of 2007 and 2008 or even more often, no "festival" at all. We don't experience film in a vacuum, and our resultant discussions should reflect that.

PEFF 2010 begins tonight - cheers.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 1: Gridlock (THE SOCIAL NETWORK / TRON:LEGACY)

The passage of time within the Hollywood System is an ever curious entity - one moment's hot property can become passé within the same news cycle, and yet here we have a based-on-a-true-story-but-not-really tale describing events barely a few years old, alongside a sequel to a techno-fantasy that has not been revisted directly in cinemas for over 25 years, both directed by men who made their way into film by way of commercials and music videos. This career path is not at all an uncommon behind-the-scenes trope, but like David Fincher before him in ALIEN³, Joseph Kosinski makes his debut in a genre piece that has drawn technical admiration from critics and fans at best, and smarmy remarks about production design trumping humanism at worst. Fincher, in the meantime, has found increasing approbation in the critical response to his work, culminating in a downright praise-gasm for his latest offering, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, drawing comparisons to CITIZEN KANE, and hailed by quite a few professional aesthetes as "the movie of the year." This is the type of critical disconnect that is constant, I believe due to a failure to view such works in a shared context.

(Spoilers for both films ensue.)

Along with the shared pedigree of their helmers, THE SOCIAL NETWORK and TRON:LEGACY are also both scored by electronically-based musicians well-known outside of the film world - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the former, and Daft Punk for the latter. There is a rhythm within sequences of both movies that undeniably feel like music videos at their best, employing motifs and assured editing to lay down an infectious pace to the proceedings (e.g., in both films' opening set pieces: the final club's party juxtaposed with Zuckerberg's Facemash assault on the campus networks, and Encom's celebratory board meeting intercut with Sam Flynn's annual break-in). But perhaps most importantly, both stories share a vision of technocratic elitism gone awry, originally by way of juvenile or idealistic intentions, that unexpectedly give way to a more interconnected world.

Writer Aaron Sorkin chooses "emotionally (read: sexually)-arrested misanthrope" as the primary archetype for his script, and garners considerable mileage in the decision - the irony that the phenomenal popularity of Facebook was masterminded by a small band of rather unlikeable boys is certainly the sort of hook that critics can stroke all the way to the Oscars. Sorkin simplifies Zuckerberg's perceived dourness and unrelenting contempt for others into an arguably less interesting need to be one of the cool kids, to get The Girl back (however, it is quite a delicious piece of writing to have the Zuckerberg character drive away his girlfriend by doing little more than behaving like a standard Sorkin male character - "The West Wing's" Josh Lyman has certainly given Donna Moss a much harder time while still commanding her undying devotion - the difference being that The Girl inhabits a space just outside of Sorkin-land where actual communication and empathy may have a higher value than cutesy cleverness). The Zuckerberg character goes on to create and nurture the ultimate meeting ground for cool kids, alienating his best friend (but, as depicted, inept businessman, stealing extra sympathy from his jaundiced eye towards crazy/loose Asian women, still the only kind mainstream American cinema can seem to present) Eduardo Saverin, along the way, and completing his cinematic arc while still waiting to see if The Girl has taken notice.

Real-world Zuckerberg, incidentally, wondered why, despite getting small details like clothing correct, the filmmakers couldn't grasp that "someone might build something (simply) because they like building things." ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qfcWSZAHvM ) And so, enter The Grid - a "digital frontier" embarked upon by a singular mad genius, Kevin Flynn, alongside a virtual avatar of himself, and one of his best friend, Alan Bradley. "The perfect system" as envisioned by a single father who was young and slightly disconnected, The Grid is a world where programmers (or, after a transfer of power, the lead programs) are worshipped, the "women" (even in the real world of the film, Kevin's wife, Sam's mother, is but an afterthought - barely, if anything, more than a plot device) are beautiful, inviting, and personable, and the games are spectacular. It is where the Zuckerberg character would love to live out his existence, free of the ignorance and impertience of others, of the necessity of collaborators (save the odd sycophant, who isn't real anyway), where he can party like a rockstar at the End of Line Club without the incessant muddle-minded mentorship of Sean Parker. It's not difficult to imagine the Zuckerberg character and C.L.U. seeing eye to eye on any number of subjects, and ultimately reconciliation with The Girl/Flynn would be of little import to either of them.

Yet the spark of humanity, the very thing critics have called out as being absent from the story, is what saves Sam Flynn from being swallowed by The Grid - his inexhaustible desire to get his father out drives him to ultimately manage to further his father's vision (which he already seemed committed to doing in the opening by keeping Encom's software free, even in his most rebellious and unfocused state) in new ways. The Zuckerberg character remains confined inside his Grid, rebuffed for even a harmless lunch by his female lawyer who is one of the few characters who seems to understand and appreciate his brand of hostility, which she sees as a shell. But within that Grid, the Zuckerberg character can defeat the old world of entitled brats like the Winklevoss twins, while punishing Saverin for being part of that world. A world where such entitlement is extremely relative, as if the Zuckerberg character weren't already up on high before Facebook, final club member or no.

Genre filmmaking still carries with it such baggage that two films so similar in themes and execution can garner such divergent reactions, astonishingly even amongst the fan base where the tastes have been observed to be more egalitarian towards such disparities in "prestige". The gall to make a spectacle with digital means also bears a stink that so many are unable to get past, too often burned by blockbusters that do little more than just that - Fincher has been paring back his approach for some time now, opting for more grounded effects (even the extremes of BENJAMIN BUTTON went for character-driven CG, which critics find more palpable as long as it's "serious drama"). Both Kosinski and Fincher's next projects are remakes - THE BLACK HOLE, another effects-heavy sci-fi Disney flick from decades past, and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, again based on very recent material. History does indeed repeat itself, but in the world of mainstream cinema, it happens more quickly than elsewhere.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 2: In Pursuit of Perfection (KINGS OF PASTRY / BLACK SWAN)

As did the key figures of the films featured in Day 1, the leads of today's selections also cling obsessively to the idea of perfection, but in purely expressive realms of art and creativity. In their immensely enthralling documentary KINGS OF PASTRY, directors Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker discover the intensity, suspense, and tautly enmeshed camaraderie in the pastrymaking compartment of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF), held every 4 years in France to determine the finest craftspeople in a vast number of disciplines. The collars worn by MOF's in the kitchen are instantly recognizable - the red, white, and blue of France adorning what it has judged to be its absolute best. At one point in the film, one of the judges remarks that it's perfectly possible to be a very excellent pastry chef indeed yet still fail to meet their standards, that such a candidate is still exceptionally skilled... just not an MOF.

The analogies to military life by critics (Damien Love of the Herald Scotland dubbed it "the culinary Hurt Locker" - http://bit.ly/e03oxP ) are apt, both in terms of the nail-biting nature in every moment of the 3-day evaluation (built up to nicely by the supremely devoted amount of preparation and rehearsal by specific candidates, along with brief but telling glimpses into their personal lives) and of the strong bonds formed among all involved. Again, from Love: "This is no competition in the ordinary sense, because everyone taking part could theoretically win, and everyone wants everyone else to win... in the end, the previously hardboiled head judge is practically in tears." And Love is correct - if the judges are brought to that level of emotion, just imagine the heights and depths to which the candidates soar and plummet under immense pressure, with their life's work on the line.

Perhaps the most captivating sequences in the film involve the beautifully concocted and supremely delicate sugar sculptures - marvelous pieces of handcrafted majesty that the candidates must themselves carry from the kitchen to the staging area, a terrifyingly long distance along which many a sculpture in the tradition's history has come apart - a starkly visceral manifestation of public failure that crumbles even more than just the respective candidate's efforts and dedication. Such disasters reverberate amongst all present, and the filmmakers capture this effect in all of its nuance and humanity - indeed, one cannot help but buy into the arbitrary standards that these chefs deign to meet; about how many skills and accomplishments in life can one truly have the opportunity to prove to be the absolute best? When such opportunities are available to the select few, how can they not base their entire lives around that kind of success -and for how long can they sustain that level of brutal focus?

Part of what enables these masters to reach for such lofty aims is the support of so many surrounding them, as surely seen in the journey of central figure of the piece, Jacquy Pfeiffer, a French expatriate in Chicago who co-founded its French Pastry School with MOF Sébastien Canonne, who is his exacting coach for the competition. In one sequence, we see Pfeiffer create a cake all the way from design on a whiteboard to finished dish, only to discard it, even anticipating the precise elements that Canonne would find deficient. On other fronts, Pfieffer is bolstered by the love of his longtime girlfriend and their daughter - their pride is palpable even in moments where the strain of the situation is really taking its toll on everyone. And of course, amongst the candidates themselves, including other protagonists Regis Lazard and Philippe Rigollot, who each also relate inspiring backstories of their history with pastrymaking and the surrounding culture, there are deep bonds forged in the grueling nature of their shared experience. The collective reaction to the more devastating and seemingly inevitable occurrences makes those felt by the individual perhaps that much more bearable - there's real power in seeing a judge put his hand on the shoulder of a bealeagured candidate, presenting a minimal yet potent amount of encouragement that is truly earned.

(Spoilers for BLACK SWAN ensue.)

Within the world of Darren Aronofsky's BLACK SWAN, one may find similar levels of support and encouragement for Natalie Portman's newly crowned Swan Queen, Nina Sayers, and yet at the same time her own psychosis manages to reject most of this external assistance, allowing herself to be dominated by deeper paranoia driven by the same obsession with precision exhibited by the pastrymakers under MOF consideration. This is extremely lonely territory, and whereas Pfeiffer and friends are continually surrounded by familiar well-wishers offering their kitchens and expertise to enhance their training regimens, only Nina can immerse herself in the dark qualities of the Black Swan, as she is too embarassed and self-involved to entrust anyone to really help her in the process. In what quickly becomes a Moebius loop of inspiration and self-destruction, Nina's paranoia erodes at all who might care about her, while creating within her the perfect Black Swan - sensually aware and manipulative, violently reactive in eradicating all perceived sources of oppression, and most importantly, strongly unafraid of simply being judged on the deepest and most personal of levels, as every artist yearns to be. This final quality is much harder to come by than any level of success, including the elusive idea of perfection, and is perhaps why even the seemingly harshest MOF judges inevitably soften - those judges know the arbitrary nature of some of their toughest standards (for example, the hard requirement of making the chefs hand-carry the sugar sculptures) and want nothing more than to see the potential of as many candidates as possible, unencumbered by fears peripheral to their considerable skills, to rise to that standard.

While the cancer of the Black Swan ultimately focuses on snuffing out the innocence and insecurities of the Swan Queen, she primarily does so by calling into question the closest relationship Nina has, that of her mother Erica (Barbara Hershey). The other key mentor figure, the company's artistic director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), feels more like a plot device with respect to Nina's arc - he provides the critical impetus that causes her to doubt herself even more, but other than that, he offers little in the way of true validation and confidence, just as he did with the outgoing star, Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder). Erica's motivations are presented with more ambiguity - when Nina is awarded the lead role in Swan Lake, Erica brings home a hefty cake to celebrate, and pushes enough buttons to get Nina to eat it against her will. And thus, that incident plants the seed of the idea that Mother that wants Daughter to fail, so as not to eclipse any of Mother's limited accomplishments... or is she actually being a caring and concerned parent? For the first half of the film, Erica's very presence often causes Nina's sense of safety to instantly crumble - whether Mother is clippng her girl's toenails too close, or otherwise (altruistically?) encroaching on her privacy at most inopportune moments.

By the second half, Nina has emboldened herself to respond forcefully to such perceived threats, under the influence of the free-spirited Lily (Mila Kunis), or perhaps by Nina's own impression of what a fully independent woman would be, as projected onto Lily. Despite being most distrustful of Lily as a rival, Nina finds within Lily's presence a sense of ease that she can no longer feel with that of her mother - indeed, it's when she is not around Lily directly that Nina imagines Lily to be executing all manner of Machiavellian mechanisms in order to displace her in Leroy's eyes. All around her, Nina can only detect reasons why others would want her to fail, but uses those powerfully delirious impulses to achieve the perfection that she cannot share with anyone else.

Her journey comes off as macrocosmically empty, since no one else in the film has any understanding of what has happened, and what she has truly accomplished, heightening the tragedy entwined with the general failure of human empathy and communication, even in creative fields originated to address just that. Even the failed MOF candidates connect more with their proponents, somehow finding a balance between trust and their own singular senses of purpose. Which is not to characterize BLACK SWAN as a mere cautionary tale, which would do its rich layers and enormously effective technique a disservice - but the pursuit of perfection is a dangerous path to go alone, and even with partners, the shared strain is significant. Various family members of the MOF candidates wonder aloud whether this would be something they'd be able to handle again, should their loved one fail in this attempt and be driven enough to try again in another 4 years. There are several repeat candidates in the mix this time around, and as much as anyone wishes them success, realistically, all one can hope for is a peaceful resolution for all involved, before it's too late.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 3: Houses of Mystery (NYMPH / RED RIDING: THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1980)

Cinema contains our world in frames and windows, even when the experiences it conveys can make even less sense than the events of the world outside. By keeping such confusion microcosmic, a skilled filmmaker can still hook an audience through any number of established and novel techniques. An abstract approach is decidedly riskier, limiting mass appeal, but allows participants on both sides of the screen to explore the themes and details of the story and any related moments in their own lives in ways that transcend the the patness and safety of a traditional narrative. Alternatively, storytellers may exercise the benefits of a longform rendering, depicting character conflicts and introspection as minute instances in a much larger span - unfolding not so much in an abstract manner, but rather in one that nearly overwhelms its witnesses in the stretch of its scope relative to the onscreen events.

(Spoiler-free for both features)

Out of Thailand, director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang employs the first approach for NYMPH, in which a lovely young woman May (Wanida Termthanaporn) deals with the mysterious circumstances surrounding her husband's disappearance while on photojournalistic assignment in the jungle. The (super)-natural forces in play are not to be trifled with, making themselves known just on the periphery, forming spooky borders of beauty that cannot help but encroach upon the safety of domesticism. The camera is quite alive throughout, whether it's eerily gliding along the forest towards a forgetful river, or holding steady in a composition designed to crackle at all areas of the frame. From time to time, inscrutable titles flash onscreen, glyphic totems of time assertive. And throughout it all, May keeps it together, as terrified as she is firm and resilient towards the strange and unfathomable happenings of late. Her husband, Nop (Jayanama Nopachai), grows ever distant, rebuffing her physically even in the happiest of times as shown, growing ever close to losing himself to the horrific wonder of it all.

Meanwhile, a more man-made conspiracy altogether tears at the fabric of families just barely holding on in Northern England, glamourlessly yet lovingly depicted in James Marsh's RED RIDING: THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1980. The second in an absolutely immersive crime trilogy, the film follows the findings of one Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine), an all-around put-upon detective investigating, among other events, the murders committed by the real-life Yorkshire Ripper. As Alan Moore or his patrons might phrase it, "the scalpel of fiction" cuts ever deep upon the checkered history of the region, in this standalone piece that begins to hint further at the sheer nature of evil present in the world. Independently building upon the story of the first installment that took place in 1974, screenwriter Tony Grisoni has his work especially cut out for him here, having to bridge the other episodes as well as briskly covering for the unfilmed story of 1977 from David Peace's 4-novel cycle.

Hunter is a perfect central figure for the procedural - insightful and efficient, political yet honest, devoted but seriously flawed, particularly in terms of his strained marriage to Joan (Lesley Sharp). Like Nop, Hunter finds himself seduced by all manner of mystery, eternally reaching for escape within his work, but cursed with enough self-awareness to feel tremendous guilt over such addictive influences. The riddles of the city are intoxicating, and nymphs abound in all forms - on the streets, in the office, beneath the grave, and everywhere in between. And over it all, the spectre of police corruption and its overwhelming influence shadowing all civic and personal affairs. Secondary characters from 1974 come into deeper focus here, remarkably in constant service to Hunter's arc, while rendering complete journeys of their own.

Life can be full of periods when it feels like humanity is all too hidden, when we are surrounded by betrayers enslaved to their baser and more selfish instincts. We package such times within the mysteries they offer and retell them on film through the veil of fiction, and hope for a little understanding, a piece of peace in the bargain. And when all is dead and buried, we have only the truth to embrace.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 4: All in the Family - Deconstruction (ANIMAL KINGDOM / LAST TRAIN HOME)

At the fringes of the First World, where economic and other more personal elements wreak havoc upon the ability of family life to offer nurturing comforts, spinning parents and children into a skewed level of normality where happiness, even togetherness, is heartbreakingly hard to come by. As in RED RIDING, where extreme levels of police complicity in the local criminal empire destroyed the families of all characters depicted and then some, David Michod's ANIMAL KINGDOM also layers a fictional story with a discomfiting sense of danger, in which not only can no one, not even one's own family, be fully trusted, but at any time, one or more of a number of outside forces can come crashing in to obliterate what little sense of security one has managed to cobble together.

(Spoiler-free for both features)

The law as it stands in Michod's murky Melbourne underworld is like-minded to that of the RED RIDING'S Yorkshire constabulary - cold, dispassionately corrupt, and disturbingly efficient in its merciless execution, while the razor-thin instability of the family life matches that of the mother and daughter as much at odds as they are inseparably linked to each other in BLACK SWAN. From the tenuous perspective of J (James Frecheville in a remarkable debut), the relatively innocent yet painfully impressionable baby in a family of bank robbers, the Codys are an alpha male collision, backed into a series of sharp corners in the inevitable blowback to their latest heists. In novel fashion, Michod chooses to focus the drama solely on this fallout as opposed to adhering to the convention of centering on the spectacle of the planning and staging of the robberies themselves, producing a wholly unexpected and high-tension thriller punctuated by explosive character dynamics and the reactionary attacks of the family as a pack of rabid dogs.

At the heart of the Codys is the coarsely benign Grandma Smurf (Jacki Weaver), whose motivations are as seemingly ambiguous as they are genuine and more than a little unnerving, matching and at times surpassing those of BLACK SWAN's Erica and THE FIGHTER's Alice. From the way her maternal mouth-to-mouth kisses linger just a bit too long on her boys to her emotional machinations, Grandma Smurf is an amazingly complex figure in strong support of the harshnss of the story and its outcomes. This is the Macbeth couple on both a smaller (localized) and larger (encompassing a broader scope of relations) scale, and the tragedy is no less inescapable and shattering. Accompanied by a deceptively ambient score by Antony Partos and disturbingly graceful camerawork from Adam Arkapaw (even the most violent and surprising shots are framed in smoothly moving windows in ironic counterpoint), the film assertively yet palatably demonstrates the unbreakable bonds of family at their worst, not so far off from those at their best.

Cutting even more deeply is Chinese-Canadian documentarian Lixin Fan's literally unflinching LAST TRAIN HOME, a private look at a single mainland Chinese family slowly torn asunder by the exceedingly long distance and time incurred by the necessities of migrant work. A small lifetime ago, Changhua and Sugin Zhang left their infant children in the care of grandparents back in their native rural village, having made a desperate choice to move themselves to the faraway urban realm in order to make enough money to finance their offsprings' education back home. The family is only reunited once per annum, over the Chinese New Year holiday in which an impossible number of migrant workers all crowd the same trains, boats, and buses back to the farmlands, assuming they are lucky enough to have been able to procure the necessary tickets. Watching this system at work is an absolutely maddening but indespensible experience - it's impossible to put politics aside as one witnesses the utter failure of those in power to do right by its most hardworking citizens on even the smallest measure. It's bad enough that these countless families spend the bulk of their lives separated due to the ridiculously disparate distribution of wealth and resources, but to make them suffer the yearly trial of quite possibly not being able to spend ANY time together is even more unforgivable.

To say nothing of the profoundly emotional toll borne over the years by the principals depicted in the film - Changhua and Sugin's good intentions are quite clear throughout, exhibited by dinnertime conversations in which both parents voice their hopes for their children's better future by way of educational experiences that they themselves never had, and their unquestionably humble self-sacrifice. What they could not possibly have calculated or communicated is the rebelliousness and outright rage festering in their oldest child, daughter Qin, on the verge of dropping out and throwing away the very education they have scraped to provide for her, in favor simply following their example and becoming a migrant worker herself, attracted by the seemingly easy money and lifestyle, unencumbered by the more oblique stresses of school.

Moreover, the standard impetuousness of Qin's young adulthood is infinitely compounded by the idea that her parents cared more about earning money, even if it was towards her schooling, than they did about spending time with her. Fan and crew, in more than a few sequences, continue to film the family members' jaw-dropping aggression long after many other filmmakers would have stopped, if not to intervene, then at least to grant the folks a modicum of privacy in their ugliest moments. The visual and aural irony of ANIMAL KINGDOM are neither present nor remotely necessary here, yet both directorial styles undeniably make their viewers complicit in the heartbreaking betrayals that abound over their subjects.

If we cannot do better by the Codys and the Zhangs, who are by no means well-off or the healthiest of clans, yet not in the least unachievably far off from garnering enough financial and emotional security to survive with a few comforts, we are truly lost. Both of these features deftly avoid the unprofessional preachy tone that this piece is unfortunately taking, making their impact all the more unforgettable. There is evil in the world, and there is callousness, and both are infectious - the undrafted generation finds itself coming to grips with this self-awareness more than the ones that have preceded it, but the real will and sacrifice needed to address it may just elude it for some time longer.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 5: All in the Family - Reconstruction (THE TILLMAN STORY / WINTER'S BONE)

The life cycle does not end on the bleak note left by the previous entry, and thus we have the more uplifting revival of the (American) family as depicted in the following two films. THE TILLMAN STORY refers not to the life chronicles of star professional athelete turned soldier Pat Tillman, but rather to the narrative put forth by the U.S. military by way of explaining his death while promoting their rather limited view of heroism. Despite favoring a much more private lifestyle, Pat's immediate family, including his divorced parents Dannie and Patrick, come together in a tireless quest for the truth, bringing themselves into unrelenting public scrutiny, and expressing a much richer and relevant notion of heroism in the process, in a more comprehensive and unvarnished celebration of Pat's life, encompassing a greater deal of his complexities, virtues, and flaws. No human being would deserve any less of a tribute.

Director Amir Bar-Lev (of MY KID COULD PAINT THAT, another exploration of a mystery steeped in real-life fiction and its effects both on the central family as well as the audience they have engendered via a media focus) documents the Tillmans' efforts to get to the truth about the events surrounding their son's last moments, and in so doing, also enables them to publicly reconstruct the many facets of his life and personality that had been so easily overlooked in the more succinct but perhaps dehumanizing "unwavering patriot sacrifices wealth, fame, and ultimately own life for his country." The simpler story, which highlights only Pat's sunniest and most palatable traits, is not how his family wants him to be remembered, remarkably and inspiringly enough, and as they and Bar-Lev trace through his history over intimate conversations, old photos and videos, so does the teenage girl Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) in the drama WINTER'S BONE, trudge through her family's connections in the backroom dealings and meth labs of the Ozark underworld in search of her missing father, piecing together his life as a whole and coming to experience the depth and severity of her relations in a whole new light entirely.

(Spoiler-free for both films)

Ree does not outwardly seek a closer connection to her father Jessup, one of the most skilled meth producers in the region, but requires his presence at his own forthcoming trial, or she will have to surrender the roof over her and her even younger siblings' (and her somewhat infirm or otherwise helpless mother, long-since defeated by the general despair of their lot) heads to meet the financial obligation tendered by Jessup's bail. But in journeying into the other parts of his life, she finds herself a greater part of a culture on the fringes of what most in the Audience would consider Americana, but what the film makes clear is as rooted, thriving, and in its own way, proud as any other American element. Director Debra Granik and crew are not shy about showing the intensely violent and undeniably destructive sides of this culture, but for the most part reserve any explicit judgment on the characters, depicting them as believable people full of conflicting emotions, obligations, and humanity. From the sadness in the eyes of an aging mistress (Sheryl Lee) to the brusque honor insisted upon by the matriarchal Merab (Dale Dickey), the richness and range of the human experience is drawn in all its dangerous and grotesque beauty, with the welfare of Ree and the innocents/innocence that she protects in the balance. The conflict between familial love and personal survival centers itself most palpably in the arc of Ree's Uncle Teardrop, portrayed with a rare combination of menace and empathy by John Hawkes, and Ree's strength and drive commands, at the very least, the attention of those who have dismissed her, or worse, for ages.

In those Ozarks, abandoned by a more prosperous society, the commonality of family ties wears at their strength, but does not at all diminish their relevance and influence. Out in California, the Tillmans form a smaller, but tightly-knit clan who value honesty above all else - in an interview where Pat lays out the poor performance of his own football team at the start of a season, stating that he would not be excited for their prospects in their current state, were he a fan on the sidelines or in front of the television, he's not fishing for a sound bite or looking to rile the audience to either side, he's merely speaking his mind as forthrightly as he can. Spending a couple hours with his parents, brothers, and wife over the course of the documentary, it easy to see where he got his propensity for doing so, while remaining steadfastly guarded about his personal life. Not because the details are sordid or embarassing, but because the memories, the values, the exchanges within this group are so internally special to their members that they cannot be shared with just anyone. One does not need to look far along the modern mediascape to find others who are not so protective such precious moments, and so it's a gift to get a fuller picture of those who are, without overly compromsing their privacy. While the news may make hay out of Pat reading some political book or his intended meeting with Noam Chomsky after his tour of duty, these are only samples of the larger curiosity and passion with which Pat lived - indeed, with which most anyone, including the other soldiers in his unit who participated in this documentary, does. One such compatriot, a young man who Pat took under his wing, expresses his outrage at the ensuing cover-up, while ardently affirming his belief in American exceptionalism and his support for the Bush Administration's objectives.

A couple hours or more at a time, we have an opportunity to lose ourselves to enclosed experiences that can illuminate the complexities of the world and all its inhabitants in ways that can be too challenging to confront or discuss in other forums. Here are two films that make the most out of such an opportunity, celebrating the resilience of the family in the face of the misunderstandings and conflicts inherent to a world all to disconnected with itself. Yesterday's Codys and Zhangs reflected in today's Tillmans and Dollys, all surviving at a cost, whether they are diverging from or converging on the familial peace that the luckiest of us can know.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 6: Beyond (127 HOURS / HEREAFTER)

Many years ago, I wrote in my fifth-grade journal, "Sometimes I wonder why I am Aaron Luk." My teacher could only mark it with a modest "???" in red ink, but I suppose I could have elaborated the pseudo-philosophical underpinnings of the line a bit further for her. Hybridizing my Catholic upbringing with a propensity for science fiction and fantasy, I pictured an infinite number of souls in Heaven, consisting of every person who ever was or ever will be, arbitrarily chosen for lives in the physical world. And so I wondered how my such soul came to inhabit this body, in this family, how I was given this life... the silly little mental meanderings of a 10-year-old grasping at various metaphysical and fantastic notions.

The Internet Age is one of enormously faciliated communication, but even moreso, of constant documentation - our devces become nearly organic extensions of ourselves, and their promise pervades our processing of events, challenges, and conflicts. And small ideas that once had a lifespan of no more than a fifth-grade dismissal can find a more sustained expression given these mindsets, refining and bolstering the internal lifeforces that fuel not only our continued survival, but the expansion of our shared experiences in doing so. Despite his hubis in not pre-communicating his location to anyone before becoming trapped alone against a canyon wall, the protagonist of director Danny Boyle's intensely soaring 127 HOURS, Aron Ralson (James Franco), did happen to bring along a video camera on his outing, and channels his remaining links to he outside world through it - his drive for documentation as a form of asynchronous communication also enabling and unleashing his indomitable will to live, as opposed to merely dying with dignity.

Documentation (along with the challenge of finding the right audience for its use in communicating personal subjects and experiences) giving way to profound connections and life-expanding revelations also thematically underpins the compelling and emotional character arcs in HEREAFTER, director Clint Eastwood's autumnal foray into metaphysical meditations by way of French cinematic influences over a sublimely multi-structured script by Peter Morgan. Following a near-death experience, French journalist Marie Lelay (Cécile de France) begins researching similar incidents, with the ultimate intent of publishing her findings for a wide audience, utilizing her existing book deal with publishers who would rather she stuck to less questionable, or at least, more marketable topics. Marie's personal and professional relationships inevitably begin to wither against the strain of the breakdown of the mutual inability to connect following such a divergent experience and response, and she begins to drift into a loneliness similar to that of San Franciscan George Lonegan (Matt Damon), who has all but succumbed to it.

George has retreated from a life of relative wealth and fame as a renowned psychic to a more modest existence in blue-collar labor, the strain of constantly looking into people's souls having stolen his ability to connect naturally with any of his fellows. In an occasional effort to continue truly living, he reaches out in small steps, such as by taking a cooking course and subsequently hitting it off well with his classmate Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard), but he has all but given up on ever again finding and sustaining a meaningful and lasting relationship. Even his brother (Jay Mohr), who knows all the facts of his particular predicament, can only encourage him to use his "gift" to continue helping people and, why not, make a good deal of money in the effort, never quite understanding the toll it has taken on George's outlook on people.

Ralston exhibits a similar insularity, but more out of a narcissistic independence rather than tragic necessity. His awareness of himself as superhuman, as shown in his first-act wantonness towards danger and enticing others towards the same, puts him on a collision course with fate in the ultimate test in not only his belief in himself, but in what lies beyond. Visions literal, remembered, imagined, and foreseen become his reality, and very enticingly drawn the audience in to his internal drama, making the deceptively static staging of a 1-man movie look all too easy. Even early on in his predicament, he knows the escape, and after enough time, introspection, and failure, all of his mental and physical facilities have found the synchronicity required to defy the despair of a lonely death.

And so as our leaders strive to "win the future", so too does the future endeavor to save us, in the form of our children- both films discover the next generation as an intermediary to resolving the disconnects of the present. The Londonian twins Marcus and Jason of HEREAFTER complete the film's tri-regional arc, beginning with their own exercise of independence (from social services, by guarding their alcoholic mother from judgment), and then themselves stumbling into the lonely void that Marie and George hope to flee. Emotional stymies made manifest in the immovable stone keeping Ralston from his destiny.

If life always finds a way, it is because it is worth it. The mysteries of existence need not be solved for its truth to reveal itself to any of us, so long as we keep our senses and minds open. The heroes of these two films do no more or less than abide by such simple adages, and are rewarded in reaching the next step in a series of demanding and interconnected moments. And finding their lives more here than after.

PEFF 2010 (ASL), Day 7: Within (RABBIT HOLE / INCEPTION)

Though all loves and lives must end, there are always those left behind left to tell the tale. And in that telling, in that last gasp of desperate connection, the survivors may settle upon the calm they need in order to live without. Though we cannot control the circumstances of loss, we bind ourselves to the responsibilities regardless, allowing them to erode and erode at true happiness until one of many recourses must be enacted. Despite all efforts at reconstructing what's happened, there are some family situations that are beyond restoration, but not repair. Most families never recover or even stay together following the most untimely of losses, compounding the tragedy to unbearable proportions, unless the survivors can at long last recognize how much they still have, without neglecting the effort it takes to maintain, nor the precious rewards in doing so.

Becca and Howie Corbett (Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart) of RABBIT HOLE, director John Cameron Mitchell's staging of David Lindsay-Abaire's well-received play, are recovering from a loss that the story wisely keeps at bay, revealing it only through their actions and reactions to each other's grief. In another world, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) wrestles mightily with his own guilt over the dissapation of his family life, allowing himself to be denied the free will to carry on, in Christopher Nolan's psychological heist thriller, INCEPTION. Both films explore life's escapes, through infinite possibilities and wishes manifest in stories and dreams - is there really any difference there after all?

A pair of remarkable character ensembles accompany the leads of the respective narratives, giving voice to the sanity and reason ever beaten down by the demons of doubt and despair. Especially resonant is the empathy that all the storytellers involved imbue into these supporting players, who are not at all unaffected by the events that unsparingly haunt the leads - from the most peripherally concerned acquaintance to those directly involved, the stories are full of folks, who, while not without their own agendas, are generously attentive and insightful towards their fellows. There are numerous pairings with which one could parallel these films on several levels - arbitrarily, let's choose the relationships between Becca and a taciturn local boy, Jason (Miles Teller), between Howie and another woman in perpetual mourning, Gabby (Sandra Oh), along with that of Dom and his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard). More obvious combinations abound, but in exploring these in particular, the shared themes of shattered possibilities arise, along with the central choices faced by the leads.

More than just choosing between burying themselves in the past or moving forward, the novelty of the stories is in offering the heroes the option of skewing the present to avoid doing either. The literal rabbit holes of the former find figurative yet enterable realms in the latter, as respective realities become muddied in the deep-rooted desires of the mind and of the soul. But what is absolutely clear, is that these new routes come at a heavy cost, one that spurns the affection and fellowship of the aforementioned supporting characters, including what's left of the suffering and forlorn families. The supplemental plot elements feed into this key conflict in delightfully elegant fashion - in the former, Becca's mother (Dianne Wiest's) own ongoing reoslution over the untimely death of a wayward offspring, and in the latter, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy)'s strained history with his industrialist father (the late, great Pete Postlethwaite). In a lovely symmetry, Corbett Sr.'s endurance assertively tries to find its way into Becca's heart while Dom's journey towards peace is inversely a necessary landmark in order for Fischer Jr. to find his... and vice versa in both storylines.

The disruption and recovery of the family unit have been wellsprings for compelling cinema over all time, and especially as demonstrated in many of the selections in this festival. Even with the unwavering and underappreciated support of others, our internal struggles ever threaten to get the best of us, whether they swallow our dreams or demand our complete surrender to those dreams. The discovery of the internal ability to channel the strength and resilience proferred externally is a journey that most of us experience on some scale daily, and stories that make large this conflict with measured melodrama and grounded surreality are vital in enhancing the experiences and exchanges of a life well lived, of options well considered. On the screen and beyond, we are uplifted by our propensity to dream, and ultimately affirmed by the maturity to find our way back to the best possible future.

Blogalyzers

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:16:40 GMT

Thanks to tiger_stripes for the link. The pronoun indicators are surprising, given the general attempts to avoid the first person in most entries posted here.

So, asluk, your LiveJournal reveals...

You are... 6% unique (blame, for example, your interest in asian american media representation) and 12% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy radiohead). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 20

(The average level of weirdness is: 29.
You are weirder than 43% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

The Blogalyser reveals...

Your blog/web page text has an overall readability index of 15.

This suggests that your writing style is conventional
(to communicate well you should aim for a figure between 10 and 20).Your blog has 6 sentences per entry, which suggests your general message is distinguished by clarity
(writing for the web should be concise).

CHARACTER MATRIX

male		female
self		world
past		future

Your text shows characteristics which are 59% male and 41% female
(for more information see the Gender Genie).
Looking at pronoun indicators, you write mainly about yourself, then the world in general and finally your social circle. Also, your writing focuses primarily on the present, next the future and lastly the past.
Find out what your blogging style is like!

Testing LiveJournal iPhone app

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:47:16 GMT

asluk posting from ...

This is text behind the cut.

~~formatting tags~~

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

political quiz, snagged from backawayslowly

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:32:03 GMT

You are a
Social Moderate
(56% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(31% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid.com: Free Online Dating
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Sigh... so long, Tartan

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:55:53 GMT

http://www.filmbrain.com/filmbrain/2008/06/tartan-films-ri.html

The world of MWM comtinues to grow...

A Pain That I'm Used To

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:55:38 GMT